Tina’s personal story

Since then I have had numerous surgeries and treatments for basal cell carcinoma, squamous cell carcinoma, and melanoma. Needless to say my entire body is covered in scars, and I have so many I've actually lost count. My doctors have told me I'm the youngest they've seen to have skin cancer in so many places, and I'm still fighting it to this day. There's not a day that goes by that I don't find another spot somewhere on my body that needs to be removed.

I try to talk to people about the sun and tanning beds and all the risks that are involved. If I could go back in time I would have never tanned in a tanning bed and would have worn sunscreen any time I was outside in the sun!

But I make sure to cover my little girl completely—I won't make the same mistake twice! I know there are a lot of people out there who think, "It will never happen to me,” especially when it comes to younger people, and even I may have thought like that when I was younger, too. But if people could see all my scars and hear everything that I have been through, and everything my family has been through, and everything that we are still going through to this day, it may change at least one person's mind about tanning!